Final Fantasy XV uses Denuvo; gets "cracked" 4 days prior to release using the demo's .exe

Member

1.) Last week, Final Fantasy XV was reported to not have Denuvo last week because the EULA didn't mention it
2.) They update the store page today to confirm it's using Denuvo
3.) 3DM replaces the DRM-free .exe from the demo using the unencrypted Origin pre-load
4.) Uploaded to torrent sites 4 days before the game even comes out

translated 3DM notes said:

The packaged files for the official version of the full file using the unencrypted patch is based on the demo version of the existing players can test successfully hit the second chapter Chapter 3 whether the entire customs clearance yet to continue testing

The official version has confirmed D encryption, non-genuine players can use this version to play the official version of the content. Pre-order DLC temporarily unable to enable. After the official version based on the unencrypted version of the release, we will also extract the first time based on the official version of the unencrypted patch.

Don't have much sympathy for a company that puts a game's longevity at risk for legitimate customers. Good, get fucked Square Enix/Denuvo. It sucks because now illegitimate users are getting treated better than paying customers and like every other Denuvo game that has been bypassed, the game's longevity is threatened by mandatory online authentication that serves no purpose.

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Member

Square Enix has been doing so many screwups lately.
I'm glad it got cracked though. Hopefully they'll actually remove Denuvo from it now, seeing as its not even protecting the game day one. Literally only paying customers are affected now.

Member

I mean like great job for having a modular and swappable engine, but you probably should have hardcoded some shit in it so it didn't work. Modding potential is probably insane now that people know you can easily run whatever shit you want at it.

Member

Square Enix has been doing so many screwups lately.
I'm glad it got cracked though. Hopefully they'll actually remove Denuvo from it now, seeing as its not even protecting the game day one. Literally only paying customers are affected now.

As much as it sucks for them, this is a win for the consumer. Either they remove the DRM prior to release (hopefully what happens, they'll see a spike in sales and people will probably stop refunding their purchases out of spite) or we'll have something to rely on when those servers do crash and legitimate customers are expected to crack the games they own as usual.

They did everything right.... Until they did something incredibly shitty and that something was what mattered most. Something that inherently threatens the shelf life of their products knowing fully well that it doesn't increase sales and I think that's really scummy of them considering how much they've benefited from the "backwards compatibility" of the PC platform during the early days of Steam. They were one of the first publishers to put out a huge catalog of older games and we bought them even though we could pirate every single one of those games. The convenience outweighed the money in our pockets.

We have reliable sales data. We have CEOs of massive companies admitting it doesn't work and that it's only to stop shareholders from screaming about "not protecting their investments" during those quarterly earning calls. We have studies showing that piracy helps sales and we have world governments (including the US where our consumer rights laws are laughable) ruling that it is legal to circumvent DRM and authentication servers when it inevitably fails.

Seriously, look at the SteamSpy data. Denuvo games rarely outsell their Steamworks counterparts. Square Enix should be aware of this far more than any other publisher. https://steamspy.com/dev/Square+Enix

Neo Member

Insisting with Denuvo is silly, in my understanding, the majority of people who pirate games, won't buy a game if the pirate version is unavailable, they will either wait till it's finally cracked or go for something else. Just concentrate in delivering a good product and making people see it's worth it.

Member

Insisting with Denuvo is silly, in my understanding, the majority of people who pirate games, won't buy a game if the pirate version is unavailable, they will either wait till it's finally cracked or go for something else. Just concentrate in delivering a good product and making people see it's worth it.

Member

What I think Graven is saying is, pirates don't want to purchase the game in the first place. They pirate it as to try it but aren't that financially interested in the first place (or can't afford it).
So this is leading around the debate where developers say they use anti piracy software because they don't want to loose sales.
The twist on that is they won't be loosing money in the first place as the people who are pirating were not going to purchase in the first place.

Denuvo is actually worse than your standard anti piracy setup. It punishes legit buyers by slowing down the game.
So if anything, Denuvo actually encourages buyers to pirate as they would get a better version of the game.

What devs should be doing (imo) is actually reward buyers instead of penalising buyers.
Hence my post about CD project red. A company that actually gets how the market works.

Neo Member

What I think Graven is saying is, pirates don't want to purchase the game in the first place. They pirate it as to try it but aren't that financially interested in the first place (or can't afford it).
So this is leading around the debate where developers say they use anti piracy software because they don't want to loose sales.
The twist on that is they won't be loosing money in the first place as the people who are pirating were not going to purchase in the first place.

Denuvo is actually worse than your standard anti piracy setup. It punishes legit buyers by slowing down the game.
So if anything, Denuvo actually encourages buyers to pirate as they would get a better version of the game.

What devs should be doing (imo) is actually reward buyers instead of penalising buyers.
Hence my post about CD project red. A company that actually gets how the market works.

It's "funny" that those who are actually paying for the game, are getting a potential inferior version, given the performance loss. It's not by chance that usually the publishers hide the fact that a game has denuvo on it.

Member

I was really looking forward to this, but DRM that relies on third party servers is a hard pass for me. DRM that doesn't rely on third party servers is a soft pass, I'll make exceptions for only the most legendary titles that I just can't miss and FF15 isn't quite there.

Member

All this complaining and it's still be in the Top Sellers list on Steam right now. According to SteamSpy, 77,354 users have already purchased the game as of this writing. At $50 a pop, that 's around 3.8 million bucks earned (about 3.1m when accounting for the 20% that Valve takes off the top), and it'll keep climbing from here. I think we're all preaching to the choir here regarding the DRM - it sucks, impacts performance negatively, and honestly should be removed since the demo .exe workaround pretty much nullifies the purpose of the DRM. The trick is communicating that to the 77,000+ schmucks that put money into it blindly, that's how you change things. Then again, who knows...maybe people that purchased it are the ones that really liked it on PS4 and are going to buy it regardless. I'll be interested to see when the game actually releases to see what the numbers are on refunds

Neo Member

I've yet to see any proof that Denuvo does anything to game performance and I mean anything. I've seen people say this for years as an excuse for poor optimization but no actual intrinsic link to it causing performance issues.

DOOM had Denuvo and it performed insanely well, after it was removed due to being cracked it performed identically.

Member

All this complaining and it's still be in the Top Sellers list on Steam right now. According to SteamSpy, 77,354 users have already purchased the game as of this writing. At $50 a pop, that 's around 3.8 million bucks earned (about 3.1m when accounting for the 20% that Valve takes off the top), and it'll keep climbing from here. I think we're all preaching to the choir here regarding the DRM - it sucks, impacts performance negatively, and honestly should be removed since the demo .exe workaround pretty much nullifies the purpose of the DRM. The trick is communicating that to the 77,000+ schmucks that put money into it blindly, that's how you change things. Then again, who knows...maybe people that purchased it are the ones that really liked it on PS4 and are going to buy it regardless. I'll be interested to see when the game actually releases to see what the numbers are on refunds

Doesn't Valve take 30%? And don't forget other licensing fees, including Denuvo. I don't follow the pirate scene, are Steamworks games easy to crack or something? Seems requiring the Steam client is a good way to use DRM without going overboard.

Member

I've yet to see any proof that Denuvo does anything to game performance and I mean anything. I've seen people say this for years as an excuse for poor optimization but no actual intrinsic link to it causing performance issues.

DOOM had Denuvo and it performed insanely well, after it was removed due to being cracked it performed identically.

Problem with these sorts of comparisons is that there's only one example of a patch being released where it was the same build but without Denuvo (RiME). Any performance benefit to games like Doom/Hitman/Homefront/Life is Strange would be attributed to other things in the patch.